More Material Lifted for Kennedy Book

Published 8:00 pm, Saturday, February 23, 2002

Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, who previously admitted copying passages for her book on the Kennedys, now acknowledges that scores of additional quotations and paraphrases came from other authors.

Her publisher, Simon & Schuster, plans to destroy its inventory of the paperback version of "The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys," and will reissue a corrected version in the spring.

Goodwin admitted last month that she had used uncredited passages from three other works in her book, and acknowledged that Simon & Schuster paid to settle a legal claim by author Lynne McTaggart under a confidentiality agreement.

Since then, her research assistants also have found uncredited passages copied from other books, The New York Times reported Saturday. She declined to specify how many or which books, saying her researchers were still at work.

Goodwin said Sunday that the repetitions were accidental, and she defended the overall accuracy of the book's references.

"The overwhelming number of the 3,500 footnotes and quotations are absolutely correct," she told The Associated Press.

"One cannot change what happened in the past, but one can make it right in the future, and I'm glad to make it so," she said.

Goodwin, who lives in Concord, Mass., also gave a more detailed explanation of why the mistakes happened.

Last month, she said she confused copied notes with her own words because she used longhand for note-taking and writing. She said she corrected the system after "The Fitzgeralds and Kennedys" appeared in 1987.

But she told the Times last week that she continued taking notes and writing in longhand after 1987, and that sloppiness and inexperience also played a role.

"The mechanical process of checking things was not as sophisticated as it should have been," she said.

Goodwin is not the only well-known author to come under fire recently. Best-selling historian Stephen Ambrose was accused of using other writers' material for his books, and Joseph Ellis acknowledged lying to his Mount Holyoke students about serving in Vietnam.

Goodwin said that when articles about the copied passages in "The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys" appeared last month, she told her research team to halt work on her next book, a biography of Lincoln, and to instead comb "The Fitzgeralds" for other derivative passages.

"We are awaiting Mrs. Goodwin's corrections," Victoria Meyer, executive director of publicity with Simon & Schuster, told The Boston Sunday Globe. "Once they're all in hand, the new edition will be printed."

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Goodwin said no problems had come up about any of her other books. She said she now uses a computer for note-taking, and types in her footnotes as she writes.